Friday, September 25, 2009

6 comments:

papa zero
said...

Though it may sound fantastic - I am using time travel technology to convey this message to you from the year 2472. I have chosen you to receive this message because you will soon undertake a journey with an associate that will leave you with no doubt as to the nature of my plea for help.

I have spent much of my life's work in pursuit of an ancient Roman artifact - The Raxalus Wings! I first became aware of of their existence when I discovered repeated inconsistency in the translated inscriptions of the legend of Icarus. For eons archaeologists and historians had believed that a particular Roman account of a "super-speed" heroic figure named Raxalus was simply the mistranslated Greek story of Icarus but the accumulated evidence indicated they were in fact seperate figures! Sure enough, I began to find other references to Raxalus and the "wings" which adorned his garments as he "ran on the wind." Other references to similar stories have suggested he was called "Windrunner" or "Maximus Mercury" and considered a hero to the people across the Empire. What became of Raxalus is unknown - but his "wings" were said to be dipped in gold and put on display after his disappearance. All traces and mention of The Raxalus Wings go cold after 410 AD and the sack of Rome by the Visigoths.

After years of research and excavation I have in fact found the long lost and priceless treasure buried beneath ruins and it will soon be put on public display in Central City here in 2472 - but a rather bizarre conundrum remains. In my research I came across rumors that The Raxalus Wings were somehow destroyed nearly 500 years before I unearthed them by Green Lantern and the Flash during an encounter with Reverse Flash! If the Wings were destroyed in 1973, what have I uncovered? What sinister motive could Reverse Flash have to get in a scuffle over a piece of the costume belonging to Raxalus???Please investigate the nature of this rumor in your era and return your message using this messaging system as a conduit. Blogger.com will still exist into my era though most of the robot labor is outsourced to Mars.

This is the first comment this blog has received to have been recorded using a mode of time travel. Truly, I'm honored. It's a good thing you're awaiting my reply from the year 2472, too, because it'll likely take me many years to unravel such a riddle!

I've never had the pleasure of reading The Flash #225, so I must admit that much of this was lost on me. Tell me, does Zoom's appearance in ancient Rome in The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #10 suggest a direct link to the events of the earlier story? That was certainly among the villain's most mysterious guest appearances.

Flash and GL asked Reverse Flash about a creature that had suddenly appeared in their own time how to handle the creature (having recognized it from Thawne's era). The Raxalus wings were an artifact that Thawne blackmailed green lantern into stealing in 2473 in return for his expertise on the matter - since th creature had already proven to be beyond their capacity... Hal was confronted by the Green lantern of that era while Barry worked with Thawne to stop the creature. Flash figured out a way to beat it and of course we discover that Thawne was behind the creature's appearance in the 20th century to begin with. The connection made in the letter was conjured in the narrative I made up while incorporating potential for Zolomon and Max Mercury...

This is the most entertaining comment thread I've read in a while. You used to see this sort of thing in lettercols sometimes. Nicely done, papa zero!

On another note, does it ever feel wrong seeing Barry and Zoom team up. This issue came years before Zoom killed Iris, but that act entrenched him so firmly as a brutal psychopath that it's hard to read his earlier appearances without shuddering. He always had a certain cruelty that the usual Rogues lacked, but who would have guessed how bad he would go?